Automotive news sources are already buzzing with speculation about the 2015 Mustang, but we don’t think you need to worry about future models to find a cool one now. We spent a month with the Mickey Thompson Performance Tires and Wheels 2013 13 5.0L Mustang GT SEMA show car, which was showroom fresh when we drove it. It was far more fun than any 2015 Mustang forum discussion.

2/11This Mustang’s purpose is to showcase Mickey Thompson’s new Street Comp tires and SC-5 wheels; the tires are 255/35R20 in front and 275/35R20 in the rear.

The car was built for suspension R&D and to show off Mickey Thompson’s new Enhanced Stance System, which is available now as a set of four wheels and tires made to max out the rubber room on a new GT. It includes the Street Comp five-spoke wheels in 20x9 and 20x10.5, and the new M/T Street Comp high-performance rubber in 255/35-20 and 275/35-20. Next comes the Metal Series Suspension that uses new lowering springs, sway bars and links, a strut bar, and a cross brace. SSBC Big Bite rotors and Force 10 Tri Power calipers add extra clamping force.

The upgrades don’t stop at the suspension. Edelbrock installed its high-horsepower E-Force Competition 5.0L supercharger. The base E-Force kits are advertised to make 559 hp to the flywheel, but that’s at 5 psi of boost. This setup makes 8 psi and uses a more aggressive tune with an SCT Flash performance programmer, and is advertised at 636 hp. The air’s entry and egress were freed up with an Airaid cold-air kit and Borla 3-inch, stainless steel Cat-Back exhaust system with an X-pipe.

There are a bunch of cosmetic upgrades described in the captions, but we’re interested in performance.

Chassis Dyno

There isn’t any drama to report from our day on the SuperFlow chassis dyno at Westech Performance Group. We just rolled up and hit it with 573.6 rwhp at 6,800 rpm and 514 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm. That’s a huge spread between the rpm points of peak horsepower and torque.

Dragstrip

Performance at the AAA Famoso Raceway dragstrip was a letdown compared to those solid power numbers. The car has a six-speed stick, and HOT ROD pro driver Michael Essa had trouble finding the sweet spot for rpm at launch. After five runs, the best 60-foot time was a poor 2 seconds flat. We should have brought Mickey Thompson’s drag radials with us.

9/11

Another problem was the shifter, which caused either missing Second gear or waiting for the rpm to fall before shifting. So the quarter-mile numbers were not breathtaking: 12.68 at 119.38 mph.

Road Course

Day three, the track testing portion of our test, was at the Streets of Willow road course at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California, where the Mustang ran a 01:16.65. The track was a good test of the car’s ESS suspension, Street Comp tires, and the Mustang’s various electronic aids. We enjoyed it the most with traction control off but stability management on. With traction control, the engine computer pulls power at the first sign of tire spin, which was often. Stability control applies brakes to keep the car in check but keeps more power at your foot; also, it’s slower to respond, giving you time to correct before any electronic aids step in.

Essa first told us, “The traction control is pretty inhibitive, and even when the traction control is off, the stability management tries to kick in. You want to let the car rotate around the corner, but then the stability control kicks in and thinks you’re going to spin out. If the car is sliding a little bit, it’s not a big deal. It could probably be a few seconds faster if we cut that off altogether.” After a few more laps, he changed his mind and said we didn’t want to discover what the car would be like at high speeds with a lot of torque and wheelspin. “The engine makes a lot of power, and it comes on instantly, so you have to be real easy with your right foot,” Essa says. The street pads in the brake calipers were another restriction to killer laps, as they faded with use.

Run to the Coast

While the flog testing ended at Willow, our thrashing of the car did not, as the author competed in his first American Street Car Series event: the Run to the Coast held at a Southern California abandoned airstrip, where there was an autocross, a road coarse, and a speed- stop challenge. The series is targeted at entry-level guys. “Main thing is we want to get people out of the lawn chairs, throw away the wax, and get out here and run these cars,” says Bill Howell, co-owner of the American Street Car Series. We hold our heads high after finishing 29th overall in a field of 50-plus serious, purpose-built cars. The M/T Mustang might have had more potential, but we were there for fun, not competition. With a pro driver and more concentrated time, we could have improved a few spots, but that’s not what the event was all about.

10/11The Mustang is a drifting machine, although the drifting in this photo wasn’t on purpose.

Daily Driving

Among all of this racing and testing, we were still using the car as a daily driver. It assisted with hauling timing and photography equipment, was used on Saturday-night dates, and had the horrible task of carrying the author’s laundry to the laundromat. It was enjoyable on the street because of the characteristics of the Coyote 5.0L: tame under 5,000 rpm, but a monster above that. The custom Katzkin leather racing seats were easy to get in and out of, and Anvil Auto custom-made a real carbon-fiber center console that classed up the otherwise stock interior. The Hurst fifth-gen Mustang Short Throw Shifter was a bone of contention among staffers, as Brandan Gillogly refused to drive the car because of it, but the author liked the mechanical feel of the traditional Hurst ball shifter in an otherwise plastic-feeling late-model, and the shifts felt solid and mechanical, though we did miss a couple gears because the shifter’s pattern is too tight. This shifter eliminates the pushdown reverse lockout, making it very easy to slip into Reverse when trying to find First gear at a red light. Hurst’s solution is a small, dash-mounted reverse-indicator red LED.

The exterior gained attention due to the Anvil Auto custom pieces, which included hoodpins, hood vents/scoops, a new upper and lower grille, brake cooling ducts, side skirts, mirror covers, custom Street Comp badging, and the front carbon-fiber spoiler that scraped every speed bump in town. The front spoiler was the only thing that became a concern while daily driving the Mustang, other than the overwhelming fear of knowing we could never afford to replace it after we bury it in a ditch while showing off.

HRM Staff Average Ranking on a Scale of 1–10, 10 Being Best:
Competence vs. Purpose: Under-promise, over-deliver. M/T never intended this Mustang to be flogged like it was. The suspension is a street system for a decent ride and stance, and the brakes faded quickly at the track, but the car excelled as a nice and fast, hopped-up daily driver that looks cool. And that was the intended purpose.
Ranking: 8

Performance vs. Potential: If you wanted a pure track car, you could have a different but more jarring suspension and a set of race pads. If you wanted a drag car, you would show up to the track with drag tires. Those traction issues limited the engine’s on-track performance potential.
Ranking: 7

Dares to Be Different: There’s virtually nothing you can do to a Mustang GT to make it truly unique; it’s just not the daring choice of body style. The PPG repaint is also a zero-risk red. The restyling bolt-ons from Anvil Auto are very nice.
Ranking: 3

Fabricated vs. Bolted Together: The entire point of this car was for Mickey Thompson to create a suspension system and wheels and tires that anyone can bolt on with zero drama. So it’s inherently bolted together rather than fabricated. This element of our judging was intended for more radically reworked hot rods than this one, so this ranking really isn’t a knock on the car.
Ranking: 2

Cool Factor: This is a tough one, as some staffers loved the car and others weren’t excited by it. It definitely gained attention rolling into a parking lot, but again, it’s really tough to make a late-model standout cool. We did get the nickname Bro-Stang—thanks, Essa.
Ranking: 7

Bang for the Buck: This wasn’t a cheap exercise in muscle, but it did everything with style and without any problems. Edelbrock’s kit is reasonably priced, and the parts on the car aren’t crazy expensive, but the large aftermarket goodies list is quickly approaching Shelby prices.
Ranking: 6

Practical Streetability: The engine package made it incredibly friendly on the street and in casual driving, even down to the racing seats that were easy to get in and out of. We had the keys for a month and drove it as a daily driver. The Mustang is a street car, despite its best efforts to appear as a race car.
Ranking: 10